Our ODA Hawai'i team continues to lead the charge in cleaning up our beautiful Hawaiian waters. On Sunday, June 24th, we departed Island Divers Hawai’i with a full boat of 19 divers ready for action. Their boat is located on the southwest side of Oahu.

We left a fairly calm harbor and rounded the China Walls area headed to Spitting Caves, a popular fishing area.

Removing Dangerous Debris

The seas around the point were 4-6 foot swells, but our superb boat captain Kelsey placed us in perfect position to dive.

We dove on a vertical wall at about a 50' depth and went to work removing fishing line, weights, hooks, and other debris. We found a lot of fishing line tangled on the coral and strung along the vertical wall. The find of the day was a 10' pop-up tent frame that Jared Betzel manhandled by himself.

We filled three buckets and after 40 minutes headed back to the surface. As we departed the ocean bottom, one of our new lift bags detached and quickly shot to the surface. We were able to use the other lift bags and some strong swimming to bring our debris to the surface.

The swells were rolling hard and as we waited for the boat, the pop-up tent decided to return to "Davey Jones" locker...We'll be back next month to bring it back up from the depths.

Our “Clients” – marine wildlife

During our dive, we saw a turtle, scorpion fish, and a few rock movers amongst the many other fish, which reminded us why we were there.

We also saw some nice, healthy coral heads which remind us why it is so important to remove all the monofilament line. Double-click on the photo below to make it larger, then look for the little green fish!

Protecting the marine life and the ocean is a priority for all of us and we're all excited to do it again next month. As we motored back to the harbor, Tim Hollandsworth (Island Divers) spotted our wayward lift bag and directed our captain towards the sea wall.

Tim then dove in and retrieved our new ODA lift bag that tried to get away. Thanks Tim, for the eagle eye and quick action.

Also, huge thanks to Island Divers and all the volunteers who showed up to help. We've got a great group of dedicated divers who are excited to be part of the ODA charge here in Hawaii. We all had a blast!

If you live in Oahu and love the oceans like all the folks who came out on this debris cleanup dive…then come on out and join us next time for our monthly dive on July 29th.